OnePlus 3T review: Rekindling a love story

The best budget-minded flagship gets even better with a mid-cycle spec bump.

The OnePlus 3 is easily the company's most complete (and well-received) product, offering a high-end experience at a fraction of what you'd expect to pay elsewhere. But the hardcore phone nerds that are so often potential OnePlus buyers are a fickle bunch, and they may not be interested in buying an "old" phone that was released six months ago. The answer? Bump the specs, add a couple important improvements and re-release the phone to reassure potential buyers that they're getting the absolute best when they buy.

The result of that thinking is the OnePlus 3T. The "T" doesn't really mean anything, per se, aside from the fact that some companies use an "S" to denote their follow-up models ... and well, T is one letter more. But the name also denotes that you're getting the new phone, and the OnePlus 3T does have a few points of distinction that are worth re-evaluating it as a phone worthy of your hard-earned dollars.

With the same great overall experience so many people enjoyed on the original OnePlus 3, the OnePlus 3T adds a little extra in the form of some new specs, a new storage option, a fresh color choice and the promise that a new software version is just a month away. Here is our full review of the mid-cycle OnePlus refresh.

About this review

I (Andrew Martonik) am writing this review after 9 days using a gunmetal OnePlus 3T with 128GB of storage. The entirety of the review was conducted on the T-Mobile network in the greater Seattle, WA area. The phone's software arrived on version 28_161027 (with the October 1 security patch), and was not updated during the course of review. The phone was provided to Android Central for review by OnePlus.

Subtle internal changes

OnePlus 3T Hardware

The external hardware design of the OnePlus 3T is identical to that of the original OnePlus 3, so I won't get into the minutiae of the hardware details yet again. I will point out, though, that even six months on, the design and in-hand feel still hold up. The aluminum feels great, the build quality is precise and I still love the Alert Slider for quickly silencing the phone. Up front the 1080p display (which remains unchanged) is still colorful and crisp, but its overall brightness leaves just a little bit to be desired — its aggressive dropping of brightness when set to "auto" doesn't help, either.

The hardware absolutely still holds up, and outdoes other phones in its class.

For a 5.5-inch phone the OnePlus 3T is still plenty thin and compact, though the slick metal body doesn't quite offer enough grip for me sometimes. I found myself putting it in a OnePlus sandstone case more often than not, which is a shame because I really love this new gunmetal color that's a bit deeper and includes a hint of brown when compared to the old silver color. If you want something a bit different, the soft gold metal with a white front remains an option, and will be on sale shortly after launch.

Now to what OnePlus actually changed. There's a faster processor, a larger battery, a new front-facing camera (more on that below) and a sapphire covering for the rear camera. You can also now option up to 128GB of internal storage for a very fair $40 more, which will help placate those still miffed by the lack of SD card slot.

The internal hardware additions are nice, and mean that you can rest assured that you have the latest and greatest inside, but right now the specs really just make sure that your OnePlus 3T will be good to use in another year more so than improving things dramatically today.

(Patiently) waiting for Nougat

OnePlus 3T Software and performance

It's a tad superfluous to spend all that much time talking about the software here, as by the time the first OnePlus 3T orders arrive they'll be less than a month away from an OTA that will bring Android 7.0 Nougat. I absolutely have to say that perhaps holding off on the launch of the OnePlus 3T in order to ship it with Nougat out of the box would have been a real treat, but I also understand the desire to get the phone out in the market for the holiday season as well.

Nougat will be here soon, but for now the OxygenOS Marshmallow experience is excellent.

But as it stands, the OnePlus 3T will greet you with roughly the same "OxygenOS" experience built on Android 6.0 Marshmallow as you'll find on the OnePlus 3, OnePlus 2 and OnePlus X today. The newly combined OnePlus software team has made a handful of small visual and feature enhancements, though — there's a fresh look to the notification shade, a few tweaks to the stock launcher and under-the-hood file system improvements to provide even more speed.

The tweaks are relatively minor, and all build into the same great software vision — OxygenOS is still all about simplicity, respecting Google's vision for Android and augmenting it with a handful of useful features and customization options. As I've said before, OxygenOS includes many of the features we rooted our phones for years to get, and it integrates them into Android as if they were meant to be.

Though the OnePlus 3 was already one of the best-performing and slickest phones available, a bump to a newer Snapdragon 821 processor is always welcome. The OnePlus 3T is of course extremely fast and smooth, and I never experienced a slowdown in over a week of using it — and I'd expect it to hold up just as well as my OnePlus 3 has after months of use. And not only does the new Snapdragon 821 give you the confidence that you're getting the latest and greatest mobile CPU when you buy the phone, but it also prepares you for the future — you just got a little extra runway for top-end performance a year or 18 months from now.

It isn't uncommon to finish a day with over half of the battery left.

The same goes for the battery, which jumped over 10% in capacity to a hearty 3400 mAh. Together with the more efficient processor and already svelte software, the OnePlus 3T has offered me amazing battery life. My usual day, kicking off at 8 a.m., with lots of podcast listening, frequent app use, retrieving email, managing my social networking apps and taking photos left me with 40-50% battery when I headed to bed after 10 p.m. A lighter weekend day saw the OnePlus 3T end up with over 65% left when I went to bed. That longevity puts it in rare company already, and battery life is only set to get better when Nougat arrives.

Dash Charge fast charging is of course still included, though because battery life was so great I really didn't find a need for it and regularly just used whatever charger I had laying around. Adding to that feeling is the fact that Dash Charge is proprietary to the OnePlus 3 and 3T, meaning I'm still going to lean toward carrying a different charger that's better suited to powering all of my devices rather than tailoring to just one. But for those who just use a single phone, the ridiculously fast refill times from Dash Charge still can't be overlooked.

Cameras

OnePlus made an ... interesting move to switch away from its previous 8MP front-facing camera, which had large 1.4-micron pixels, to a new 16MP sensor (different from the rear camera) with much smaller 1-micron pixels. Aside from the spec change the camera is still fixed-focus and offers 1080p video, if that's your sort of thing.

This feels like an overall upgrade to the front-facing camera, but it's still just average.

On the face of it (har har) this change should offer better image quality in daylight and a dropoff in low light situations. The camera does pretty well, actually, particularly in better lighting. Low light shots were understandably grainy, but no more so than any other front-facing camera I've used lately. The only issues I can find here is that the fixed focal distance can sometimes leave your face a tad soft (an issue with most front-facing cameras), and there's no sort of front-facing "flash" mode that lights up the screen in dark situations. A move to an auto focusing front-facing camera would be more expensive, but a front-facing screen light when taking a selfie in darker areas should be standard particularly when you have a sensor with such small pixels.

Now, a small gallery of selfies for you to judge (hopefully just the camera quality) for yourself — and no, these shots didn't use the "beauty" mode.

The rear camera is exceptional for a $440 phone, and competitive with $650+ phones.

Aside from the addition of a sapphire glass covering, the rear camera has remained unchanged from the OnePlus 3 — a 16MP sensor with f/2.0 lens that's known to be a solid performer. The Snapdragon 821's improved ISP (image signal processor) may be helping things a tad here, but I honestly couldn't tell the difference in images taken with the OnePlus 3T versus its predecessor. In most situations the camera does a great job of quickly snapping a photo that's accurate and colorful, though low light pictures still get a good bit of blurry chroma smoothing when compared to top performers like the Pixel XL. For a $440 phone the camera is beyond fantastic, and when compared to $650+ phones it's competitive. Once again, things could improve further with the Nougat update.

Still great

OnePlus 3T Bottom line

Whenever a company replaces a popular product with a new model less than six months after its launch, it has the potential to turn customers sour. Discontinuing the OnePlus 3 in favor of a spec-bumped and more expensive OnePlus 3T was always going to rub some the wrong way, but considering the overall minor extent of the upgrades and the continued software support for the original model I think we can all get past it. The original OnePlus 3 is still a great phone today, and nobody who has one should feel any different now than the 3T is here.

You still can't find a better value than the OnePlus 3T.

Looking at the OnePlus 3T as a standalone device, available in late 2016 to compete with phones ranging from $400 to $700, it's absolutely a fantastic total package. OnePlus took a proven platform that was already a crown jewel of "affordable flagship" phones, and refreshed it with a couple important improvements without removing anything that made it appealing when it launched the first time earlier this year.

Even with the modest price bump, the OnePlus 3T is an amazing value. It has great hardware, slick and responsive software, amazing battery life, strong rear camera and every internal spec you could want. Even its few weaknesses, like slightly low screen brightness, lack of waterproofing and questionable software update frequency, are minimal bad marks on what is otherwise an exceptional phone. At $439, you can't find a better value than the OnePlus 3T.

Reader comments

OnePlus 3T review: Rekindling a love story

I see the OP3 is still on the OP website, but while there is a "buy" option for the OP3T, I don't see one for the OP3. They list the specs but no longer sell the phone? Is this a subliminal message to just get the 3T? Reading Andrew's articles I was choosing between the ZTE Axon 7, the Honor 8, and the OP3, and had eliminated the Honor 8 from the running.

I can find the Axon 7 new for about $250. Is the 3T really worth $200 more and 3 weeks of wait? Our Sprint lease (and 2 yr contract) is up this month and my wife & I will be stepping up from Galaxy S5 phones.

If value is the most overriding concern then get the Axon (make sure it's not the Axon 7 light though) if the UI is also important to you then get the One+3. Or install a launcher on the Axon and save a wedge of cash.

I see the OP3 is still on the OP website, but while there is a "buy" option for the OP3T, I don't see one for the OP3. Do they list the specs but no longer sell the phone? Is this a subliminal message for me to just get the 3T? Reading Andrew's articles I was choosing between the ZTE Axon 7, the Honor 8, and the OP3, and had eliminated the Honor 8 from the running. Of the Axon and OP3, I had been leaning toward the OP3.

I can find the Axon 7 new for about $250. Is the 3T really worth $200 more and 3 weeks of wait? Our Sprint lease (and 2 yr contract) is up this month and my wife & I will be stepping up from Galaxy S5 phones.

Just received my OnePlus 3T after returning my Leeco Le Pro 3 because of a failed charging port. I can confirm that the run time from the smaller battery on the 3T matches the larger battery of the Le Pro 3. My guess why this is is because the 3T uses a screen that draws less power and the device has better power management.
I tried my best to improve the poor UI of the Le Pro 3 by draping it with alternative launchers and other mods, but these stop gaps could not make it operate as smoothly as the 3T runs straight out of the box. The optics and image processing of 3T are superior also. In fact, the only thing I miss about the Le Pro 3 is the IR blaster. The extra $170 the 3T cost me over the Le Pro 3 was clearly worth it.

A very nice phone no doubt. But the price is bumped up. And there are some other interesting option in this space. Vernee just released their Apollo with a 21 MP camera and it are priced with a $299 price tag.
(No reviews out yet so I dont know the camera performance)

I was about to order one this morning and found the same thing. What's really disheartening is that I read it won't be in stock for the US for 4 weeks, so scrap any plans you had for getting one for Christmas. You would think that given that a phone with 128GB memory was really the only major advancement the phone has had since it was released, they would have had sufficient stock to last a week.

I have decided to wait until 2017 to buy a new phone. I thought I wanted the OnePlus 3T but if the company that makes it can't get it together any better than this it makes me wonder what kind of support I would receive if I had a problem.

omg the quality of those selfie shots is friken amazing. the details and colors are just incredible. and im using a mid-range samsung phone that cost me as much as the 3T is priced at but let me tell you its front camera is put to shame by 3T's. perhaps i simply dont know how to work the camera and tweak the settings but those shots are seriously good.

I already got my leeco for €220.00 from China. What Else I need. Exzellent camera . A cheap prepaid tärif from Aldi. Not bound to any carrier. My daughter has a One plus 3. The main purpose of a phone is still communication. The handfeeling is not important. I don't hold it for half an hour. Regards!

People keep putting too much emphasis on the dedicated DACs IMO... Ask any audio nut and they'll tell you the analog amp section matters much more (and is more easily discerned) than the DAC, and the headphones (or speakers) themselves in turn matter a whole lot more than either (specially at the low end of the price/perf spectrum).

It may very well be that phones that tout a dedicated DAC also have an improved amp and that's just harder for marketing to hype (IIRC HTC used to highlight it years ago), but still... Quality headphones are gonna make more of a difference than anything by far, and you can always pair any phone with a little powered amp if you're that hardcore.

If you ask me, no one has even a remote chance in hell of telling DACs apart with <$300 headphones, unless one of the two DACs is just awfully implemented (and the fault probably lies in the analog amp stage then)... And if you're in a noisy environment forget it, on/over ears just won't isolate enough.

People with pricey IEM could probably be much more picky, but most amps integrated into phones are probably playing havok with the really fancy multi-armature IEM anyway (too many impedance peaks and matching imbalances)... So at that point you're better off with something less fancy (Ety single BAs, or dynamics) or a dedicated player.

Get bass rich or warm sounding headphones then, or EQ it in... Far simpler than trying to find a device that colors the sound from the start and may not interact well with other things down the chain. V-Moda M-100 is a pretty good bass rich portable the doesn't overdo it; Massdrop Fostex TH-X00 if it's for home use, those kick damn hard without bloat.

I have the Z Play and I normally get 9-11 hours SOT without any mods. That's a mix between Wi-Fi and LTE with an extremely crappy signal somehow, I'm talking Orange in color, no green. I don't know how it does it honestly, that's at 30% brightness which is plenty bright.

I'm thinking of upgrading my wife's G3 to this OP3T but I wonder if she'll notice a difference in the display. G3 is very bright for outdoor viewing and was highest res screen at 1440p when it was released. Otherwise it's a good package. Maybe a little unsure about camera too. G3 takes good pics too. Any thoughts?

The camera is just as good as my G4's was, especially in manual mode. As for the display I've had quite a few phones, from S3 and Note 2 all the way to S7 and OP3 as well as the 6P so I want to be very clear here:

I do not miss the screen resolution of my S7 or 6P one bit.

It gets plenty bright for my uses, dark enough for use in bed, and is just a pure joy to own. I actually consider it an upgrade from my S7.

"OnePlus buyers are a fickle bunch, and they may not be interested in buying an "old" phone that was released six months ago."

Hardly. There was a backlog to buy them. I tried to order one at the start of October and they told me it was going to be 5 weeks to receive my phone. And they told me that after they took my money too. Canceled the order and bought an unlocked Moto G4 plus.

I'm in the same category. I wanted a OnePlus 3 after the Note 7 fiasco. Couldn't wait for the really long shipping times, so I got a V20. Now with this 3T, I'm pretty sure my V20 will be for sale pretty soon.

Got my le eco pro 3 a few days ago, will do full review in a week or so. To say the build of this phone isn't excellent is crazy. The software criticism is fair, toggles not in drop down is not an issue for me. 7 hours on screen so far while using Bluetooth and GPS a fair amount. Don't know why this phone doesn't get more love.

Since when have we relied on benchmarks of phones? The whole point of using a phone for a longer period of time for a full review is that you talk about how the phone actually works and acts, rather than a synthetic benchmark that tells you nothing about the experience.

You really think so Andrew? They're closer than ever in price given the current deals ($440 vs $500, almost equal if you need extra storage and/or already have a card for the latter), and both were very well reviewed with some strong pros to each.

I think if anything it'd come down to size for most people, 5.1" or whatever vs 5.5" feels and handles substantially different. I ended up with a Pixel for similar reasons (and because, updates), but if OP made a smaller flagship I'd be all over it like white on rice.

I think OnePlus is easily carrying the value torch for Android right now, with only some occasional challenges (e.g. Z Play), I'd love to support that, but not with a 5.5" device.

Any thoughts on how the OnePlus 3T camera compares to the Moto Z Play camera? (I know specs of these phones are very different. Main goal is good battery life and a decent camera which is harder to get on lower end devices. My girlfriend is on a Lumia 640 XL and looking for something that could replace it with Windows Phone dying)

That's a good question IMO, not sure I've seen a direct comparison since the Z Play arrived kinda late... I'd guess the latter would still have the edge on battery life tho, plus a micro SD slot and more standard QC+PD charging options, plus Mods, all for a similar price.

The OP3 will still be faster tho, by far, whether it matters would depend on usage case. At this point I also have more faith in OP's future updates than Motonovo's tbh. Really dunno where the cameras stand...

I'd actually been considering the Z Play for my mother but now I'm wondering whether to add the OP3 to the shortlist, along with the HTC 10 & X Compact if she decides she really prefers a smaller phone (coming from an original Moto X it'll surely be an adjustment.

Excellent will be interested to see how it fairs. Kind of shocking that the Moto Z Play would be faster than the 6P. Even in that camera comparison how do you feel it does? The 6P has a fantastic camera does the Z Play even come close?

Destroys the Note 4 in every way in terms of performance, lag free software etc. But will lose some features like removable battery, stylus etc. It'll be a great upgrade from the bad Samsung experience. This is great value if you don't want to spend $650+ on a Pixel.

Makes my £309 orig One+3 seem like a steal now. So glad I jumped on the bandwagon from day 1, One+3 is one of the best phones I've owned along with the Sony Xperia Z3. Would love to try a 3T but there's really no reason for me to upgrade but totally understand and support One+ for doing the upgrade.

Glad to hear the OP3T maintained the same great experience. I'm extremely content with my OP3 at the moment. It's definitely a superb package all the way around. It's not PERFECT, but its amazingly smooth, and everything it does, it does very well. Except maybe bluetooth, kind of hit or miss with my car. (however I've never had great luck with any of my phone's Bluetooth)

I'm so tempted to just sell my OP3 for this, if even just for the battery bump.

When not even a majority of people in the U.S. use CDMA, let alone the fact that a vast majority of the world doesn't even have a CDMA network available, you can check yourself a bit before calling us out.

Unlocked phones with full CDMA support for various networks are an extreme rarity. Nobody buying unlocked today should expect it, and there will be fewer and fewer as even CDMA carriers move away from the network standard.

Just north of middle Tn. My family & I just moved back to our house after a little over 2yrs. In central & southern TX.

Where we live, Tmobile coverage is next to non existent, AT&T has 2 bars out of 5 (so we can't even take advantage of AT&T's unlimited offer, even though our choices are directv or dish network, and we went back to directv). Funny enough, the Sprint signal in my home is equally as strong as my Verizon signal, but that is only because I have a direct line of sight to a sprint tower, about 1/2 a mile away in a farm field. The problem with that is if you go a few miles in any direction, you are back to Sprint's usual crappy performance, as opposed to Verizon, four bars out of five in any direction, minimum, and usually 5 bars with Ookla's speed test giving me over 50Gbps up & over 20Gbps down, consistently.

We had to upgrade from a Verizon 10Gb + 10Gb bonus data plan to Verizon's 60Gb/mnth. Data plan (and may have to up that to 80Gb/Mnth after a month or two of evaluation). Not too thrilled about the massive increase in cost, but we have to have service that actually works.

Also had to purchase an AC791 jet pack and sign on with Hughesnet.

I have also physically tried all 4 major carriers at my home, not just looked at their way overly hopeful coverage maps.

It's beautiful where I live, but not really conducive to modern connectivity, unless it goes by the name of Verizon. Lol.

Another odd, disappointing, and expensive occurrence is that AT&T signal strength has deteriorated from 3 bars that we made do with since 2002, when we purchased our home, to a consistent 2 bars with a flickering of that 3rd bar, occasionally. AT&T has also done away with any new connections or reconnections in my area for the pathetic internet service they did provide prior to our move to Texas in 2014.

Sure, I get both points, through that does not address the lack of network mention in reviews. That really should be basic. Plus, I live in a major metro area and there is no adequate GSM coverage at my home or work. I can get ticked at Verizon all I want but that does give me cell coverage.

I feel like if you're on Sprint or Verizon you already know your options are more limited, or you should.

A mention of what networks it's compatible with might be nice (tho only really useful in the US), but there's no need to belabor the point or make it seem like it should be a major pro/con for the phone.

Either you can use it or you can't, if you can't just move on... I'm on Sprint btw so I feel y'all. Wouldn't buy a 5.5" phone regardless but I know what it's like to be faced with more limited phone choices.

External hardware dramatically better on the OnePlus 3T. Software much cleaner and more powerful as well. Future support, as hit-or-miss as OnePlus has been historically, is surely going to be better with the OnePlus 3T as well.

I feel like the reviewers on this site have never warmed to any software that isn't pure Google or their launcher of choice. I've been using the Asus Zenphone 2 for well over a year and the hysterics over bloat and software tweaks when this phone came out were intense. Factually, very few of them are annoying, several are big improvements, (Google now launcher cant flip through panes in a circle) but reviewers don't seem to use phones long enough to change their workflow. They will always be comfortable with a phone that can be easily made identical to what they already use. It's a built in problem that gets worse the more phones a reviewer looks at.
What external hardware is better? The Sony IMX298 image sensor is a pretty good one, what else? the fingerprint sensor? How is the software more powerful? It's Android , right? Can you explain what it can't do in the LeEco?
Andrew, i seriously don't mean to be disrespectful, you're an awesome guy and a great writer. I really am having trouble with the deafening silence on this phone. Why ignore cheap, cool alternatives?

Having held both phones, I can tell you the LeEco phones aren't even in the same league in terms of materials, manufacturing quality or fit and finish. That makes a huge difference to the experience of a phone. And just because they have the same image sensor doesn't mean it has the same quality of lenses or software to actually process that data and create great photos. The specs are the easy part — how they actually come together is tough.

LeEco's software is crufted up with all of its (near useless) content offerings that just get in the way. OnePlus on the other hand offers tons of great features and customization options that most people are looking for. Sure you can install the same apps on any phone, but that doesn't mean we should look past the core software — it makes a huge difference in the experience of the phone.

You can be very budget-conscious and want to save the money by buying a LeEco LePro 3, but don't get carried away thinking it's the same quality phone as a OnePlus 3T.

Having used/tried both Le Pro 3 and Pixel or iPhone, the build quality of Le Pro 3 is exceptional for its value, OP3/3T? Just another chinese phone that is no better than what I mentioned. Replace the Le Pro 3 launcher with Google Now or Nova and the camera app with Google Camera app then do a comparison with OP3T. You will regret that you have wasted $189. =D

Nonsense, you can control what apps will load on startup, what apps will run in high performance modes, what apps will show notification. You have the option to disable/uninstall apps you don't like. Yes not all (if unroot). I can install FP app to show notification shade, I can use FP to launch camera from standby mode and also as shutter. It does have excellent IR blaster than I can program to control any device with IR receiver.

After two weeks of use, I had to return my LeEco Pro 3 because it stopped charging. Sent it back for a replacement, but was seriously thinking about requesting a refund instead so I can buy a 3T with 128gb. I went online to purchase a 3T and hey are all sold out, so I'm glad I didn't request a refund from LeEco.

Correct, I am using Google Now launcher and Google Camera App as well as Photos and the phone feels like $800 to me. Who cares about up to date OS when it is sluggish in comparison due to inferior hardware.

You never ever buy a phone looking at specs only. I hope you understand that its not about specs but how these specs work in united way to give pleasant experience that finally matters. Take example of One plus 2. Big on specs yet very poor phone. Consider Moto G phones. Low on specs yet better on UX.

Because of LTE bands alone for one, depending on your carrier but with most I don't think LEeco has all 4 bands and that would be pretty crappy.

Also, mp on a camera means little with cell phones. You can have a 12 mp that destroys a 22 mp simply because of software. Then sensor. Apparently sensor has less to do than software or the Sony phones would use the cell phone camera game but they don't. Other phones using the exact sensors out perform Sony phones by quite a bit.

The Oxygen OS and great specs is why I would buy this phone. Not to mention they have figured out a great recipe for an amazing phone that does circles around most flagship phones. Not to mention it looks great and build quality is solid.

7-10 hours SOT (depending on usage) just average? LePro3 has excellent battery life so either you are getting wakelocks or you are talking BS. I bet this OP3T phone won't even reach 7 hours on heavy usage.